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Beginning June 1, 2011 we are increasing the price of the following products by $10. The new prices will be as follows:

CompanionLink for Outlook: $49.95

CompanionLink for Palm Desktop: $49.95

CompanionLink for Google: $49.95

CompanionLink for Time & Chaos: $49.95

CompanionLink Express: $79.95

This nominal increase will allow us to continue providing free US-based phone support to our customers. Providing world-class support is important to us. In fact, we offer free support even before you buy. We stand behind our software and want to ensure your experience with it is a great one!

If you are still determining whether or not to buy our software, we recommend you do so before the price change. We offer a no-questions-asked, 90-day money-back guarantee in case you decide to return our software.

Prices Are Changing On June 1 was last modified: May 2nd, 2011 by David

These days, “the cloud” is all the buzz. The cloud, in terms of contact and calendar sync (among others), means using a service like Google, Gmail, or Windows Live (Hotmail). Just host your data in the cloud and it will magically show up on your device. Simple, right?

Not so, say the people (as they rise in mutiny).

Google started the move to store personal information in the cloud. First with email, then with calendar, and then with contacts. If you buy a new Android phone, all your email, contacts, and calendar data that is hosted in the Google cloud will magically synchronize with your phone. Oh, and this magic works with iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry too.

Microsoft joined the cloud party with their Windows Phone 7 launch. They now require people to have a Windows Live account in order to sync PC data to the device. This means Microsoft Outlook users who have maintained years of contacts, calendar, tasks and notes data on their PC now have to trust that data to the cloud. The cloud will then synchronize with Windows Phone 7.

So what’s wrong with this?

Well, for starters, we’ve already seen this movie! Palm tried the same thing with their Palm webOS launch. They required people to have a Google account, which integrated with Palm Synergy. If you wanted to keep your PC data in sync with your webOS device, you had to first sync to your Google account in the cloud. The story for Palm didn’t end so well. (HP may beg to differ.)

While the cloud is an amazing resource that should be used, not all Outlook users can digest trusting their PC data to the cloud. Many people have security requirements in place that simply don’t allow cloud storage of their data. Others are leery of hosting their sensitive information online. Their question is simple, “I’ve used Outlook for years. Why am I now being forced to add a web-based account, and trust everything to that?”

The cloud providers will argue that you trust a lot of things to the cloud, whether you realize it or not. They’re right. Your credit card details you use for that online orders, tax returns you prepare and submit online, or the numerous online banking and bill-pay services you use – they all store data in the cloud. And we don’t even blink.

But this is different. It’s not an argument on the security of cloud storage. It’s about having options. Put simply, not everyone wants to sync their Outlook data to the cloud – and they shouldn’t have to!

The good news is that there are alternatives. You’ll need to find a tool that allows you to keep your data on your PC and sync directly to your device. There are a few ways to go about this:

2. If the option from the phone’s manufacturer is non-existent or insufficient for your needs, look for third-party software. Shameless plug – CompanionLink has software that can sync your Outlook contacts, calendars, tasks, memos, and categories to your mobile device. It works with all Android, iPhone, iPad, and BlackBerry devices. There are a number of other options available as well, but few offer the complete sync solution that CompanionLink does. For Android, SyncDroid has a solid list of most all of the sync options available. For iPhone and iPad, you’ll most likely have to piece together a solution from a few different apps in the App Store. For BlackBerry and other devices, your options are few and far between, but a search on Google should turn up some options.

In the end, the cloud is certainly where the industry is heading. As time goes on, it will likely become as ubiquitous and secure (or even more secure) than traditional data storage options. Until that time, however, those who wish to sync their data locally still do have options!

The Plight of the Standalone Microsoft Outlook User was last modified: April 12th, 2011 by Rushang

CompanionLink build 4036 is now available on our updates page. This update addresses a USB sync error that affects a small number of devices when syncing with the latest version of DejaOffice for Android. If you have experienced the following, please update now:

– USB drive mounts to the PC properly and the user is able to read/write data to it, but CompanionLink never starts a sync
– Previously able to sync with build 4033 and earlier
– Only the very first USB sync works after deleting the companionlink.db file and starting over

Support Update: CompanionLink Build 4036 Now Available was last modified: March 23rd, 2011 by David

As many Outlook users will tell you, categories play an important role in keeping everything organized. Categorizing your contacts, calendars, notes, & tasks helps you to break them down into manageable groups of information. Color-coding this information further helps by giving you the ability to interpret data at a glance. For example, I use yellow to signify a business call. I use red to denote a mission critical appointment. I use blue for business meetings, and green for personal meetings. Just by glancing at the color of an appointment, I know what it’s for.

Business people rely on similar systems every day to be productive. However, another thing many Outlook users will tell you is that they have not found a great way to sync categories to the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, & Android devices.

This is a major concern for many people. The ability to categorize data efficiently becomes severely limited when it is only accessible at the computer. We are a mobile society, and we need our information available at a glance if we are to stay productive on the go. Therefore, the ability to sync Outlook categories is not just convenient for most users, it’s quite important!

That’s where DejaOffice enters the picture. DejaOffice is a free iOS and Android app that we built in response to the need for a great way to sync data from Outlook, as well as a variety of other popular Personal Information Manager programs. Using DejaOffice in conjunction with CompanionLink for Outlook allows you to sync your existing category data from Outlook to your Apple or Android device over Wi-Fi or via CompanionLink Secure Hosted Wireless. With DejaOffice and CompanionLink, you are able to take your categories with you! For more information on how to set up and sync Outlook categories, visit our support page.

Get Microsoft Outlook Categories On Your iOS & Android Device was last modified: February 17th, 2011 by David

Today is the day that many Verizon customers have been waiting for. The Apple iPhone officially went on sale for pre-order on the Verizon network at 3am EST today. While the iPhone has been available for a few years, today marks the first day that US customers have a service option other than AT&T.

As a happy iPhone user myself, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to the many Verizon customers who will soon be getting their first iPhone. One of the first things you’ll likely be doing is heading in to the App Store to start downloading apps. As you’ll soon discover, there are many great apps to install. I personally recommend downloading Dropbox, Dragon Dictation, and Kik Messenger, to name a few. That said, I’d like to focus on one app specifically: our very own DejaOffice. DejaOffice is designed to enhance the iPhone experience for business customers. With DejaOffice, you gain access to business-class contact, calendar, note, and task management. A detailed list of features is available at www.dejaoffice.com. These features make all the difference for business people who are looking to stay productive while on the go.

DejaOffice works great as a stand-alone app. However, many business people have spent time carefully nurturing customer databases they’ve built up over the years. They need a way to get their customer info on their new iPhone.

That’s why we built DejaOffice!

It works seamlessly with CompanionLink. When paired with the CompanionLink application for PC, DejaOffice will sync data with many of the most popular database systems available, including Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, Palm Desktop, Lotus Notes, and more.

Earlier this week we posted a new video showing you how to sync Outlook with Android via Google. Today we have another new video, this time showing you how to sync Outlook with Android direct over secure USB using the new CompanionLink 4.0. CompanionLink’s USB sync with Android works in tandem with DejaOffice, a suite of contacts, calendar, tasks and notes apps for Android-powered devices.

DejaOffice, a mobile office application suite, is now available for iPad and iPhone in the Apple App Store. Designed for professionals who need quick access to manage their schedule, DejaOffice offers business-friendly contacts, calendar, tasks and notes for iPad and iPhone.

DejaOffice lets iPad and iPhone users efficiently view, enter, update and manage contact and schedule information. The app supports advanced business features such as categories, custom fields, advanced search and sort options, expense tracking, and linking of contacts to calendar. DejaOffice also takes advantage of the iPad’s large screen to offer additional display modes like dual-pane viewing.

The iPad is a leap forward in mobile office productivity. Business professionals can pull up DejaOffice and easily take a few moments to organize their week’s schedule, plan business tasks, jot down expenses and make contact notes.

Many phones in the market today, specifically those running the Android operating system, do not have support for the ‘Notes’ feature that so many business professionals find essential. CompanionLink is proud to offer a solution to this problem.

CompanionLink’s software for Android allows people using Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage, Novell GroupWise, Goldmine and Palm Desktop to sync all their notes/memos to an Android phone via a secure USB connection.

CompanionLink works through the CL USB Sync app users download to their Android phone. This app has advanced Notes functionality to handle thousands of records. Power users who use categories to manage their Notes on the desktop will be pleased to find that these categories sync across to the phone. Users can sort their notes by categories, and find the data they need with the powerful built-in search feature.